High-Ranking Pagans On Trial

{Charleston, West Virginia}...Trial is continuing for Elmer Luke "Tramp" Moore and Richard Timothy "Lucky" Weaver, two high-ranking members of local chapters of the Pagans Motorcycle Club accused of acting as armed bodyguards for Pagans National Vice President Floyd "Jesse" Moore, who is also Elmer Moore's father. Sixty-five year old Floyd Moore, one of the main defendants in a 44-count federal indictment, unsealed in 2009, against 55 Pagan members and associates, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in February 2011 and is serving a five-year sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Loew told the jury that, when Moore moved to St. Albans, where he is originally from, he ordered Weaver, president of the Charleston Pagan chapter, to serve as his bodyguard. Elmer Moore was the president of the Pagans' Buckhannon-Weston chapter, and is alleged to have organized bodyguards to help escort his father to a "mandatory" Pagan meeting in Virginia, where Floyd Moore was expected to be the target of a fellow club member. Weaver's lawyer, Deirdre Purdy, said Weaver and his tiny, 20-member chapter were targeted by federal investigators simply because Floyd Moore decided to move back to St. Albans.